MOBILE, Alabama -- The city of Mobile paid for portable toilets to be placed in a downtown park where Occupy Mobile protesters set up camp over the weekend but then abruptly had them removed them this morning.

Some residents who got wind of the free toilets sent emails to the City Council and Mayor Sam Jones' office to complain that the protesters were getting a free ride.

The city has yet to respond to questions from the Press-Register.

Joe Fesenmeier, the representative of Gotta Go Portables who removed the toilets from Spanish Plaza at about noon today, said he'd received a call from a city employee telling him take them away. He said he wasn't told why.

Each portable toilet costs about $15 per day, he said.

Tyler Henderson, one of the occupiers, said that the city had given the protesters no warning that the toilets would be removed.

City Council attorney Jim Rossler said in an email to the council members that the Occupy Mobile protesters had a permit for Saturday and Sunday, but that, as of Monday, they have "no permit permission, or right to set up a camp in the park."

He said that he'd also been told about the toilets, which the city placed there Saturday "for a variety of reasons." He said that he'd been told the toilet would be removed today.

Councilman Fred Richardson said that the city will have to use discretion in dealing with the protesters so as not to garner negative media attention.

He said that handling the portable toilets would be tricky, too.

"If you take them away, then you'll end up having to arrest them for doing something in public," he said.

Richardson also pointed out that the city provides portable toilets in other situations where the public is likely to gather, such as for Mardi Gras.

When Henderson and others saw Fesenmeier picking up the toilets, they demanded to know why he was taking them.

After telling the protesters that the city, who was paying for the toilets, could have them removed whenever they wanted, Fesenmeier asked the occupiers why the city should be paying for toilets to accommodate a protest group.

Henderson responded that it was a public park and the protesters were exercising their constitutional right to assemble in it.

After the toilets were taken, several protesters walked from the camp site to Government Plaza to ask that they be returned.